Would you give the devil a second chance?
by Vault-Emblem
Summary: Were the leftovers of his admiration for him what was stopping him? Or maybe was it the fear that, eventually, he would have needed him again? Or was it because he wanted to give Jack a second chance?


**Would you give the devil a second chance?**

\- You ok there, Rhys?-, Vaughn asked.

\- Y- yes-, he replied, taken by surprise, - I was just… clearing my mind-.

He had never been good at hiding his emotions from his best friend, and in fact the other tilted his head with a suspicious look on his face.

\- Are you sure? If you have something to say you should spit it out now, before we awake the Traveller-, he insisted.

\- I'm fine, I promise-, Rhys answered, trying to sound convincing.

He had obviously failed, he could see it in the way Vaughn was looking at him, but thankfully he decided to leave him be.

\- When you're ready join us so we can start-, he just said, before leaving the room they were in.

* * *

Rhys sighed, his hand in his pocket.

He took something from it and he stared at it: it was his old ECHO eye… with Jack's AI still inside it.

* * *

He still didn't know exactly why he had decided to keep it, despite everything.

The more rational part of him was screaming that it was dangerous, that he had to destroy it to put an end to the Handsome Jack's era for good; hadn't everyone suffered enough because of him?

Even so, why did he still have it, then?

Were the leftovers of his admiration for him what was stopping him? Or maybe was it the fear that, eventually, he would have needed him again?

* * *

Or was it because he wanted to give Jack a second chance?

* * *

He was an asshole, and he definitely didn't deserve anything more, especially a second chance; if anything, he would have probably made him regret the decision to trust him again.

Still, Rhys couldn't forget what he had said to him when Hyperion crashed on Pandora.

He looked sincere, and he almost pitied him, but it was also true that he tried, and almost succeeded, to kill him as soon as he got the chance. That man wouldn't hesitate to do anything for power; killing wasn't a problem for him.

* * *

He thought about all those years spent idolizing him, wanting to imitate him, to be like him.

What a waste of time… or not?

He couldn't deny how helpful, in his own fucked up way, Jack had been to him; without him, he would have done half the things he had done and, let's be honest, he would have probably been dead.

* * *

He remembered when Jack told him that he was seeing a lot of himself in him.

It was a lie, Rhys was almost certain of it now, but he couldn't help but notice that their stories shared some similarities: they both took power by force, and they had been the cause of many, many deaths, more than he had foreseen, more than he would have liked.

* * *

He didn't want to be like him. That he had decided a long time ago, when the illusion was gone and he saw Jack for what he really was: a monster.

But what about the future?

That was what scared him the most; his mind was full of possible future scenarios, one worst than the other.

What if he had to become like him?

* * *

He tentatively squeezed his robotic hand around the ECHO eye, but he couldn't bring himself to apply enough force to actually break it.

If it wasn't so sad, it would have been almost funny: even though the eventuality of Jack coming back was his worst nightmare, he couldn't destroy the source of the problem, the last shred of Handsome Jack's existence.

* * *

He shook that thought off his head; he couldn't afford to waste anymore time.

He, no, they were so close to finally get their hands on a Vault Key; he had to be focused.

He put the ECHO eye back in his pocket and he took a deep breath, before heading back to where his friends were waiting for him.

* * *

Right now the Traveller was his priority. He would have thought about Jack and, possibly, destroyed his AI once and for all later.

* * *

 **Author's note:** Hi! Thanks for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it.

This is my personal view on Rhys's thoughts about Jack at the end of the game. I feel like, even if he understands the true nature of Jack and he condemns his actions, it will take a while for him to be completely over his admiration for him. I think that at first he would keep his old ECHO eye, mostly because he can't bring himself to break it, but eventually he will get rid of it.

Well, that's all for now, see you! **-Feeldespair**


End file.
